Australian publishers Fairfax Media and News Corp Australia celebrated big wins at the Kennedy Awards for Excellence in NSW Journalism last Friday, taking out 18 of the 32 categories.

News Corp Australia’s The Daily Telegraph won all five pictorial categories, with sport photographer Phil Hillyard winning two. The award for court reporting was presented to Emma Partridge of The Daily Telegraph, while colleague Ray Thomas won the Rod Allen Award for Racing Writer of the Year.

The Australian’s Greg Bearup received the award for Outstanding Turf Reporting, while Catherine Marshall of The Weekend Australian won the travel writing category. Overall, News won 10 awards.

Among Fairfax Media’s eight awards was Young Journalist of the Year, which was presented Jack Morphet of the Wagga Daily Advertiser, while Stephanie Wood, of the The Good Weekend, was recognised in the Jim Oram Award for Outstanding Features Writing.

The Age’s investigative podcast series Phoebe’s Fall – which also was featured by The Sydney Morning Herald – took home the gong for radio current affairs and audio blog. The highly-successful work won a gold medal at the New York Radio Festival in June and a Melbourne Press Club Quill for Radio Current Affairs.

The major award of the night, the 2017 Kennedy Journalist of the Year, was presented to Nine News’ Chris O’Keefe. This year’s lifetime achievement award was presented to Ita Buttrose.

Now in its 6th year, the Kennedy Awards received more than 500 entries across the 32 categories. Many of the awards are dedicated to the memory of some of the country’s best journalists, including Les Kennedy, Rebecca Wilson and Sean Flannery.